E-invoice threshold may be set at `50 cr

New Delhi, June 9: The finance ministry is likely to propose Rs 50 crore as the turnover threshold for entities to generate e-invoice on a centralised government portal for business-tobusiness (B2B) sales as it looks to curb GST evasion, an official said.

The GST Council, which will meet on June 20, will take a final decision on the turnover threshold for issuance of e-invoice for B2B sales after consultation with states.

An analysis of return filing shows that as many as 68,041 businesses have reported a turnover of over Rs 50 crore and accounted for 66.6 per cent of total GST paid in 2017-18.

Further, while the rest account for just 1.02 per cent of GST payers, they make up almost 30 per cent of the B2B invoices generated in the system.

"The turnover threshold for entities to generate e-invoice for B2B sales is likely to be fixed at Rs 50 crore if the GST Council agrees. With this threshold, big taxpayers who are better placed technologically to integrate their software would have to generate e-invoice for B2B sales," the official said.

With e-invoice generation, entities with turnover above Rs 50 crore would be saved from the twin activities of filing returns and uploading invoices. From the government's side, this would help in curbing invoice misuse and tax evasion.

The official said under the current system, there is a gap between the time of generation invoices and filing of sales returns. The number of entities filing monthly summary sales return GSTR-3B and paying GST is higher than those filing outward supply return GSTR-1.